Turkey Cookie Cake

Easy to make with ready-to-roll cookie dough, cake mix and colorful icings, your family will have fun creating — and eating — this sweet holiday bird. To make it even faster, start with a store-bought Bundt.

Ingredients

Cookies:

• ⅓ cup + 1 Tbs. all-purpose flour
• Half tube (16.5 oz.) refrigerated sugar cookie dough, at room temperature
• 10 (4″) wooden toothpicks
• 7 (8″) lollipop sticks
• 2 cups sifted confectioners’ sugar
• 1 ½ Tbs. meringue powder
• Red red, burgundy, orange, brown, golden yellow and moss green concentrated
• food colorings
• Red, orange, gold and green edible glitters
• Gold dragées, optional

Cake:

• 1 pkg. (16 oz.) poundcake mix
• Water, butter and eggs
• 1 can (16 oz.) milk chocolate frosting
• 1 each red and orange gumdrop
• 2 Tbs. each red, orange and yellow decorating sugars
• 1 Devil Dog snack cake
• 2 yellow gumdrops
• 1 black edible color food marker
• 2 light blue Wilton Jumbo Confetti sprinkles

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Line 3 baking sheets with parchment paper. On medium speed, beat flour into cookie dough until blended. On floured surface, roll out dough to 1/16″ thickness. Using 3 ¼” and 3¾” oak-leaf-shaped cookie cutters, cut out 10 small cookies
   and 7 large cookies.
2. Place cookies 2″ apart on baking sheets. Insert 1 toothpick into edge of each small cookie, gently pushing 1½” through. Repeat with lollipop sticks and large cookies. Bake small cookies 10-12 minutes and large cookies 15-17 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool on pans on racks.
3. On low, beat confectioners’ sugar, meringue powder and 5 Tbs. water until mixed. On medium, beat until slightly thickened, smooth and spreadable, adding water, 1 tsp. at a time, if necessary. Divide icing among four bowls. Tint one bowl dark burgundy with red red and burgundy food colorings, one bowl autumn orange with orange and brown colorings, one bowl golden yellow with golden yellow coloring and remaining bowl green with moss green coloring; cover with plastic wrap when not in use. Brush thin layer of icing over each cookie. If desired, immediately sprinkle with matching color of glitter; decorate with dragées. Place on racks; let dry, 1-2 hours.
4. Meanwhile, coat 8½”-diameter, 1½-qt. ovenproof bowl with cooking spray. Prepare cake mix with water, butter and eggs according to package directions. Spread in bowl. Bake 45-50 minutes or until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean. Cool in bowl on rack. Trim wide top of cake to level; transfer, cut side down, to serving plate.
5. Reserve 1 Tbs. frosting. Spread remaining frosting over cake. Press back of spoon into frosting to create small grooves.
6. On wax paper sprinkled with red sugar, roll out red gumdrop to ⅛” thickness. Using 1″ teardrop-shaped cutter or knife, cut out “wattle.” For “beak,” roll out orange gumdrop in orange sugar; cut with 1″ heart-shaped cutter.
7. For “feet,” press yellow gumdrops together; roll out in yellow sugar. Cut out 4 (1″) hearts; overlap 2 hearts and press together for each “foot.” Using marker, draw “eyes” on blue sprinkles. For “face,” using reserved frosting, attach “eyes,” “beak” and “wattle” to Devil Dog. Attach to cake. Insert cookies into cake to make “tail,” trimming lollipop sticks as necessary.